AN HISTORIC, 109-year-old retailer which survived being bombed in WW2 is about to close its doors for the final time.
Current and past owners of the family-name business have joined together to lament the “sad” loss to the high street.
Salt's tobacconist opened up in the heart of Coventry in 1916 – half-way through the second world war.
It was founded by Harry Wilfred Salt, and for over 100 years was passed down through generations of the family.
Harry's granddaughter, Carla Henry, ran the shop with her husband until they retired in 2020.
The business was the sold away from the family, to its current and final owner Mark Kendall.
But since Mark took over, pressure from the pandemic and diminished customer footfall have made it impossible to keep operating.
Salt's will close down for good on March 29.
Carla said: “I just feel sad for the city centre as a whole. The small businesses have all disappeared and there's no individuality now.”
She said she believes it to be one of the last surviving family-named businesses in the city centre.
Recalling her childhood behind the shop counter, Carla said: “My parents used to say I spent my life in the pram in the back of the shop.
“My father would go home for his tea but my mum would come here and take over.”
The now-retired shop keeper remembers selling sweets from jars, peanuts and ice cream – alongside the staple tobacco.
When Mark bought the shop in 2020, it fulfilled his life-long dream of running his own business.
He reflected: “It's come to be a bit of a sad end.”
The thing Mark said he would miss most about the shop are the colourful customers, who bring “the giggle, the banter”.
He added that some of his older customers had been very upset by the news of the shop's closure.
Mark said: “It's been great to have some really old boys come in and get to know them and hear their stories.
“We've got people in their nineties coming in who've been smoking a pipe since they were 14, and to hear some of their stories, it's just a different world.
“You can see it lights up their day.”
It's understood that Mark will continue to run a light repair service from online.
Coventry locals took to social media to share the disappointment, alongside stories of the tobacconist's past.
One wrote on Facebook: “I remember buying my dad a single and expensive cigar from there, as a thank you for him organising my 18th birthday party.”
Another said: “Great shame, I used to walk by the shop every day when going into town from Quinton Road Training School (Bristol Siddeley/RR).
“Bought my ink/cartridges for my fountain pen from the shop – still have the pens!”
Meanwhile, a huge charity shop will shut down 39 stores around the country in a matter of days.
ThedisabilitycharityinEnglandandWaleswarned back in January that it could close a number of its 138 stores
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than halfofcompanies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, withworse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
